Recycle effluent: green group

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Water restrictions should be made permanent, an environmental
group says. And effluent water should be filtered to drinkable
standard to end the state's water crisis, the Total Environment
Centre says.

The centre has also called for an independent review of the NSW
Government's $2 billion desalination plant, labelling it
environmentally unsound and much too expensive. "The Government is
insisting on rushing ahead with desalination before a proper
public, economic and environmental inquiry," said the centre's
director, Jeff Angel.

The Government introduced the desalination plan earlier this
year. Chief among Mr Angel's concerns is that the fossil fuels used
to power the plant, on Kurnell Peninsula in Sydney's south, will
create damaging greenhouse gases. And once the Government has
poured billions into the plant, it will use the cost as an excuse
not to fund recycling, he believes.